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Sam D’Arco spun two yo-yos and pulled their strings as he spoke, making them dance around each other.

That was just one of the tricks the 14-year-old will use at the 2013 World Yo-Yo Contest, which began Thursday in Orlando, Fla. The Lakeside High School freshman is already a champion, having won the Southeast Regionals in the 3A division in November.

His passion for the activity began three years ago when his mother, Ruth Ann D’Arco, put a dollar store yo-yo into a care package for him while he was at camp in North Carolina.

A year ago, Sawyer Mobley could only dream about running and playing with his friends.

Because of a lifelong battle with cystic fibrosis, his lungs were failing.

After a double-lung transplant in January, the 10-year-old is now living his dreams. Six months after the transplant, Sawyer is more the active boy he wants to be.

An open port for taking intravenous medications every several hours and lugging around an oxygen tank prevented Sawyer from participating in his favorite activities, such as playing baseball, playing with his friends and swimming.

Columbia County officials have cleared the way for Warren Baptist Church’s plans to establish a satellite location on the outskirts of Grovetown.

County commissioners unanimously approved a plan Tuesday to rezone a commercial warehouse on Horizon South Parkway to allow for its use as a worship space for the church, which has its main campus on 21-acres at Furys Ferry and Washington roads in Richmond County.

Columbia County officials hope ongoing construction on Hereford Farm Road will lead to more improvements on the Evans road.

Construction began in the spring on the intersection of Hereford Farm Road and Gibbs Road, but nearly constant rains in June and July slowed the process.

The $3.8 million project includes improving the intersection by realigning it to make it “more user-friendly,” said county Engineering Services Division Director Matt Schlachter. The road will be widened to three lanes, two traffic and a turn lane, to Evans Middle School.

Several people pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in Columbia County on Friday.

Marina Mae Middlebrooks, 29, of North Boulevard in Augusta, pleaded not guilty to murder and cruelty to children at an arraignment hearing in Evans. Middlebrooks is charged in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Sky Allen.